ems 


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1w?5$&l<ia 


1   V.-'   ! 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


UBKARY 


OLD   NEW   ENGLAND 
DOORWAYS 


2777     2 


BY  THE   SAME  AUTHOR 


OLD   NEW    ENGLAND    HOUSES 

With  many  illustrations  from  the  author's 
unique  collection  of  photographs. 


North  fVoburn,  Massachusetts 


OLD    NEW   ENGLAND 
DOORWAYS 

BY 

ALBERT  G.  ROBINSON 


WITH  MANY  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FROM  THE   AUTHOR'S   UNIQUE    COLLECTION   OF   PHOTOGRAPHS   OF 

OLD-TIME   NEW  ENGLAND   HOUSES   AND   DOORWAYS 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1920 


52140 


Copyright,  1919, 1920,  by 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


Published  September,  1919 


New  and  Enlarged  Edition  Published  September,  1920 


THE    8CRIBNER    PRE88 


3321 


Uk 


*v* 


a. 


& 


30(0 


PLATES 

North  Woburn,  Massachusetts.     {Frontispiece). 
Kittery,  Maine. 
Portland,  Maine. 
Fryeburg,  Maine. 
*l        Scarboro,  Maine. 


Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire. 

Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire. 

Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire. 

Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire. 

Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire. 

Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire. 

Bedford,  Massachusetts. 

Newbury,  Massachusetts. 

Newburyport,  Massachusetts. 

Newburyport,  Massachusetts. 

Williamstown,  Massachusetts. 

Arlington,  Massachusetts. 

Lexington,  Massachusetts. 

Shrewsbury,  Massachusetts. 

East  Windsor  Hill,  Connecticut. 

[v] 


PLATES 


East  Windsor  Hill,  Connecticut. 
New  Canaan,  Connecticut. 
Farmington,  Connecticut. 
Farmington,  Connecticut. 
Farmington,  Connecticut. 
Hatfield,  Massachusetts. 
Litchfield,  Massachusetts. 
Litchfield,  Connecticut. 
Middlebury,  Connecticut. 
East  Windsor  Hill,  Connecticut. 
Wethersfield,  Connecticut. 
Middletown,  Connecticut. 
Guilford,  Connecticut. 
Guilford,  Connecticut. 
Newport,  Rhode  Island. 
Rocky  Hill,  Connecticut. 
Southington,  Connecticut. 
Southbury,  Connecticut. 
Southbury,  Connecticut. 
New  Haven,  Connecticut. 
New  Haven,  Connecticut. 
Winsted,  Connecticut. 
Deerfield,  Massachusetts. 
Deerfield,  Massachusetts. 


PLATES 


Deerfield,  Massachusetts. 
Deerfield,  Massachusetts. 
Billerica,  Massachusetts. 
Hadley,  Massachusetts. 
Hadley,  Massachusetts. 
Byfield,  Massachusetts. 
Salem,  Massachusetts. 
Salem,  Massachusetts. 
Salem,  Massachusetts. 
Salem,  Massachusetts. 
Deerfield,  Massachusetts. 
Deerfield,  Massachusetts. 
Deerfield,  Massachusetts. 
Deerfield,  Massachusetts. 
Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire. 
North  Hartland,  Vermont. 
Bristol,  Rhode  Island. 
Warren,  Rhode  Island. 
Warren,  Rhode  Island. 
Warren,  Rhode  Island. 
Warren,  Rhode  Island. 
Wickford,  Rhode  Island. 
Madison,  Connecticut. 
Newburyport,  Massachusetts. 


PLATES 


Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire. 
Bennington,  Vermont. 
Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire. 
Lexington,  Massachusetts. 
Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire. 
Bedford,  Massachusetts. 
Wethersfield,  Connecticut. 
Westport,  Massachusetts. 
Salem,  Massachusetts. 
Billerica,  Massachusetts. 
Andover,  Massachusetts. 
Chelmsford,  Massachusetts. 


[  viii  ] 


DOORWAYS 


DOORWAYS 

HUNTING  for  old  doorways  is  a  harmless 
and  interesting  amusement,  much  like  bot- 
anizing or  collecting  postage  stamps.  In 
addition  to  that,  there  is  "the  joy  of  the  road" 
whether  one  travels  afoot,  in  carriage,  or  in  auto- 
mobile. In  New  England  particularly,  many  in- 
teresting doorways  are  to  be  found  quite  away  from 
the  main  highways  of  travel,  on  the  side  streets  of 
villages  through  which  automobilists  rush  with  the 
apparent  purpose  of  getting  somewhere  rather  than 
of  seeing  something,  or  on  the  little-used  side  roads 
in  the  country  where  an  automobile  is  still  a  device 
of  some  wonder  and  even  of  alarm.  City  doorways 
and  those  in  the  villages  may  be  found  easily  enough 
by  inquiry  or  by  strolling  about  the  streets.  The 
more  isolated,  the  farmhouses  in  the  country,  are 
much  less  readily  discovered  and  they  sometimes 
come  as  quite  delightful  surprises. 

Old   doorways   are,   usually,   most   abundant   in 
the  old  villages  that  have,  in  recent  years,  grown 

[3l 


DOORWAYS 


into  large  towns  or  small  cities,  like  Warren,  in 
Rhode  Island,  or  Guilford,  in  Connecticut.  The 
latter  claims  more  than  a  hundred  houses  built  be- 
fore the  Revolution.  But  the  very  growth  of  such 
places  tends  toward  change  in  the  old  buildings. 
They  are  modernized,  or  they  become  real-estate 
derelicts  or,  not  infrequently,  tenement-houses 
rapidly  falling  into  disrepair  and  soon  to  be  torn 
down  to  make  room  for  more  profitable  investments. 
Naturally,  the  most  fruitful  fields  are  the  areas  of 
earliest  settlement,  the  Massachusetts  shore,  the 
bay  of  Rhode  Island,  the  towns  along  the  Connec- 
ticut shore,  and  along  the  Connecticut  River  valley 
as  far  north  as  Greenfield.  Few  of  the  early  houses 
remain  in  the  larger  cities.  Most  of  the  people  of 
the  first  century  of  settlement  built  in  village  groups 
or  not  far  apart  along  the  main  street.  The  system 
had  its  origin  in  the  danger  from  attack  by  Indians. 
Usually,  the  town  centre  was  the  village  green,  or 
common,  .a  tract  of  varying  area  held  for  the  com- 
mon use  of  all  for  the  pasturage  of  their  cattle.  A 
straying  cow  was  easily  killed  by  a  marauding 
Indian,  and  so  was  a  cow-owner  searching  afield 
for  his  wandering  beast.  If  a  town  was  raided,  the 
compactness    of    its    settlement    made    possible    a 

[4] 


DOORWAYS 


prompt  concentration  of  the  inhabitants  for  its  de- 
fense. So  they  built  their  houses  around  or  near 
the  common  where  also  were  the  church  and  the 
schoolhouse  and,  usually,  a  stoutly  built  watch- 
house  in  which  the  men  and  their  families  could 
seek  refuge,  and  from  which  the  plan  of  defense 
could  be  carried  out. 

As  the  danger  from  Indian  attack  lessened,  not- 
ably after  King  Philip's  war  in  1675  and  1676,  many 
of  the  colonists  built  their  little  houses  on  the  lands 
bought  by  them  or  allotted  to  them,  on  the  out- 
skirts of  the  settlement  and  even  farther  afield. 
Some  of  the  more  venturesome  went  several  miles 
away.  Some  of  these  early  buildings  were  mere 
"dug-outs"  and  more  were  log  cabins.  They  served 
their  purpose  for  the  time,  but  all  of  the  "dug-outs" 
and  cabins  are  now  gone.  Some  of  the  settlers  paid 
a  heavy  penalty  for  their  adventure  in  pioneering, 
as  did  the  people  in  Deerfield,  which  was  destroyed 
by  a  raid  from  Canada,  in  1704,  in  spite  of  its  con- 
centration and  its  protecting  blockhouse.  Losses 
by  individual  pioneers  were  numerous  but  few 
records  are  left  to  tell  the  story.  But,  with  the 
coming  of  greater  safety,  the  towns  expanded,  and 
the  settler's  frame  house  might  be  built  a  mile  or 

[5] 


DOORWAYS 


more  from  the  village.  As  a  general  rule,  it  may 
be  set  down  that  the  greater  the  modern  growth 
of  the  old  settlements  the  fewer  will  be  the  old  houses 
within  their  borders.  Many  of  them  have  been 
commercialized  out  of  existence,  and  rows  or  solid 
blocks  of  stores  or  shops  stand  where  stood  the  an- 
cient dwellings.  Not  a  few  still  remain,  modernized 
out  of  all  recognition.  This  is  perhaps  most  notice- 
ably shown  in  the  towns  along  the  Connecticut  shore, 
such  as  Fairfield,  Stratford,  Milford,  Branford, 
Guilford,  and  the  rest.  The  same  condition  appears 
in  most  of  the  old  Connecticut  valley  towns,  and 
in  the  suburbs  of  Boston.  Each  passing  year  marks 
the  end  of  an  appreciable  number  of  these  old  build- 
ings. Here  and  there,  an  old  house  is  bought  by 
the  State,  or  by  some  Historical  Society,  and  held 
as  a  memorial  of  the  early  days.  The  pity  of  it  is 
the  great  difficulty  with  which  funds  are  raised  for 
this  highly  commendable  purpose. 

The  particularly  interesting  fact  about  the  door- 
ways of  these  old  dwellings  is  that  the  same  designs 
are  found  all  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  from  Maine 
to  South  Carolina.  This,  of  course,  argues  some 
common  origin  for  the  designs.  Using  the  term  in 
its  modern  sense,  there  were  no  professional  archi- 

[6] 


DOORWAYS 


tects  in  America  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
few  who  may  properly  be  classed  as  professionals 
in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth.  In  fact,  most  of 
the  best  work  in  architectural  designing  prior  to 
the  Revolution  was  done  by  men  who  may  be  re- 
garded as  amateurs,  using  the  word  as  meaning 
those  who  cultivated  and  studied  an  art  without 
practising  it  professionally.  Among  the  amateur 
designers  of  the  eighteenth  century  were  George 
Washington  and  Thomas  Jefferson;  the  physicians, 
Kearsley  and  Thornton  and  Bulfinch;  Andrew 
Hamilton,  the  lawyer;  Joseph  Brown,  the  retired 
merchant;   and  Smibert,  the  portrait-painter. 

If  there  is,  in  New  England,  an  ornamental 
doorway  that  can,  with  any  certainty,  be  assigned  to 
the  seventeenth  century,  it  has  escaped  my  notice. 
It  is  at  least  probable  that  such  doorways  were 
used  in  some  of  the  larger  and  more  costly  city 
houses  of  that  period,  but  I  know  of  no  such  house 
still  standing.  Here  and  there  a  more  or  less  or- 
nate entrance  appears  on  a  house  credibly  claimed 
as  of  seventeenth  century  construction,  but  such 
are,  quite  certainly,  an  addition  of  a  later  time. 
There  are  several  survivals  of  the  early  years  of 
the   eighteenth   century,    among   them   the    Parson 

[7] 


DOORWAYS 


Williams  house  (1707)  in  Deerfield,  the  Porter  house 
(1713)  in  Hadley,  and  the  Dummer  house  (1715) 
in  Byfield.  It  is  impossible  to  speak  positively 
regarding  old  doorways.  Some  and  perhaps  many 
of  them  were  added  long  after  the  house  itself  was 
built.  As  such  doorways  became  fashionable,  orna- 
mental designs  were  substituted  for  the  originals. 
This  is  sometimes  determinable  by  the  design  or 
by  the  quality  of  the  workmanship.  Thus,  the  older 
part  of  the  Samson-Frary  house,  in  Deerfield,  ap- 
pears to  have  been  built  in  the  later  years  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  but  its  porched  doorway  cer- 
tainly was  not.  House  and  ornamental  doorway 
were  not  always  of  contemporary  construction. 
While  there  were  a  few  exceptions,  the  era  of  decora- 
tive doorways  may  be  regarded  as  beginning  with 
what  is  known  as  the  Georgian  period,  the  date  of 
which,  in  the  colonies,  may  be  given  as  about  1720. 
The  doorways  of  houses  built  after  that  year  may 
generally  be  assumed  to  be  contemporaneous  with 
the  building. 

Practically  all  of  the  houses  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  and  most  of  the  country  houses  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  were  the 
design  and  workmanship  of  local  carpenters.    They 

[8] 


DOORWAYS 


were,  generally,  a  persistence  of  the  English  type 
modified  by  local  ingenuity  to  meet  the  conditions 
of  the  new  country.  The  matter  of  the  ornamented 
and  ornamental  doorways  stands  in  somewhat  dif- 
ferent case.  As  already  stated,  the  correspondence 
of  designs  in  all  of  the  States  east  of  the  Alleghanies, 
from  Maine  to  South  Carolina,  argues  a  common 
origin.  This  is  found  in  books  on  carpentry,  pub- 
lished in  England,  notably,  perhaps,  those  of  which 
Batty  Langley  was  the  author.  His  books  appeared 
at  various  times  from  1726  to  1756.  They  were 
intended  for  the  use  of  carpenters,  and  gave  mea- 
sured drawings  of  columns  and  pilasters,  entablatures 
and  architraves.  From  Langley  and  others,  selec- 
tions were  made  by  the  local  builders  who  might 
follow  the  drawing  with  exactness,  or  might  modify 
or  vary  the  design  to  suit  their  own  taste  and  judg- 
ment. Most  of  these  men  were  masters  of  their 
craft  and,  moreover,  were  men  of  artistic  sense. 
They  knew  the  importance  of  proportions,  and  their 
work  shows  their  close  attention  to  that  feature, 
vital  in  all  good  architecture.  The  leading  archi- 
tects of  the  present  time  can  produce  nothing,  in 
doorways,  superior  to  many  of  those  produced  by 
the  master-artisans  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and 

l9l 


DOORWAYS 


few  give  to  the  matter  of  proportions  the  careful 
attention  that  was  given  by  the  carpenter-builders 
of  the  seventeenth  and  the  eighteenth  centuries. 

While  stone  of  different  kinds,  and  clay  for  brick- 
making,  were  found  in  endless  abundance  in  New 
England,  the  timber-supply  was  no  less  ample.  The 
settlers  in  that  region  had  been  accustomed  to  tim- 
ber-framed houses  in  the  land  from  which  they 
came.  Moreover,  the  wood  of  the  country  was  more 
easily  and  readily  worked  than  stone  or  brick.  In 
many  of  the  decorative  doorways  there  is  seen  the 
result  of  a  translation  of  the  stone  doorways  of  Eng- 
land and  Europe  into  wood  in  this  country.  In 
the  older  lands,  a  stone  column  or  pilaster  supported 
a  stone  entablature  or  a  pediment.  Here,  the  de- 
signs of  those  portals  were  repeated  or  imitated  in 
wood.  In  many  of  the  entablatures  and  arches  of 
wooden  doorways  in  New  England  there  appears  a 
design  of  a  central  block  that  corresponds  to  the 
keystone  of  the  stone  portal  copied  or  imitated. 
So  in  the  wooden  columns  and  pilasters  we  have 
the  Corinthian,  the  Ionic  and  the  Doric  capitals. 
While  some  of  the  earlier  work  of  this  kind  is  some- 
what over-heavy  in  design  and  a  little  rough  in  work- 
manship, it  is  seldom  if  ever  offensive  or  objection- 

f  iol 


DOORWAYS 


able  to  even  a  keen  artistic  sense.  While  the  work 
might  have  been  open  to  criticism  when  it  was  new, 
time  has  touched  it  with  a  softening  hand,  and  some 
of  the  oldest  doorways  are  among  the  most  charm- 
ing. 

Because  it  is  quite  unsafe  to  accept  the  estab- 
lished date  of  the  erection  of  a  house  as  necessarily 
the  date  of  its  entrance,  it  is  difficult  to  say  what 
particular  design  of  ornamental  doorway  was  first 
used.  Also,  practically  all  of  the  old  city  houses, 
where  ornamental  designs  were  doubtless  first  and 
most  generally  used,  have  disappeared,  leaving  no 
clew  to  the  pattern  of  their  entrances.  Accepting 
the  asserted  dates  of  their  erection,  and  assuming 
that  the  doorways  are  the  originals,  the  design  some- 
times called  the  "swan's-neck"  appears  among  the 
earliest.  It  shows  on  the  Parson  Williams  house, 
in  Deerfield  (date  given  as  1707);  on  the  Porter 
house,  in  Hadley  (given  as  171 3);  on  the  long  since 
destroyed  Clark-Frankland  house,  in  Boston  (given 
as  1713);  and  a  few  other  ancient  structures.  The 
earliest  type,  of  course,  was  a  mere  flat  boarding, 
or  casing,  at  the  sides  and  top  of  the  opening.  In 
many  of  the  seventeenth-century  buildings,  any- 
thing more  than  this  was  not  possible.    In  one-story 

["I 


DOORWAYS 


houses,  the  top  of  the  entrance  was  only  a  few  inches 
below  the  eaves,  and  in  many  two-story  houses  the 
lintel  was  just  below  the  overhang  of  the  second 
story.  As  the  use  of  the  overhang  was  common  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  we  must  assume  that  the 
ornamental  doorway  was  quite  infrequent  in  that 
period.  There  are,  however,  houses  of  that  time 
with  more  or  less  elaborate  doorways.  In  not  a 
few  cases  it  is  found  that,  at  some  later  time  and 
perhaps  to  make  an  ornamental  doorway  possible, 
the  face  line  of  the  projecting  second  story  has  been 
carried  down  to  the  ground,  thus  giving  a  uniform 
surface  to  the  whole  front.  This  was  done,  for  in- 
stance, on  the  House  of  Seven  Gables,  in  Salem. 
The  practice,  probably  not  at  all  uncommon,  often 
accounts  for  an  apparent  discrepancy  between  the 
age  of  a  house  and  the  design  of  its  doorway. 

But,  after  all,  few  of  us  care  very  much  about 
the  architectural  technicalities  of  these  charming 
relics  of  the  days  of  our  ancestors.  We  are  told 
that  this  house  or  that  has  "chamfered  beams,', 
and  we  must  go  to  a  specialist  or  to  the  dictionary 
to  find  the  meaning  of  the  term.  We  are  told  that 
the  early  New  England  architecture  perpetuates 
the    "half-timber"    method    of  house    construction 

[12 


DOORWAYS 


common  enough  in  old  England.  But  most  of  us 
care  little  and  know  less  about  that.  Our  interest 
lies  far  more  in  the  picturesque  or  the  historical 
features.  Regarded  as  ornamental  doorways  only, 
most  of  us  doubtless  find  more  interest  in  the  elab- 
orate and  graceful  porched  entrances  of  the  later 
Georgian  period  than  we  do  in  the  simpler  types  of 
the  early  Georgian,  a  difference  illustrated,  perhaps, 
by  Salem  or  Portsmouth  as  compared  with  such 
places  as  Warren,  Wickford,  or  Guilford.  Both 
groups  have  their  own  particular  charm,  but  the 
latter  greatly  exceed  the  former  both  in  number 
and  in  variety  of  design. 

It  is  a  fair  inference  that  people  built  houses 
with  ornamental ,  doorways,  or  added  such  door- 
ways to  houses  already  built,  because  it  was  fashion- 
able; because  their  neighbors  had  them.  This  is 
clearly  indicated,  in  a  number  of  areas,  by  the  use 
of  the  same  or  similar  designs  on  houses  of  different 
ages.  In  his  Essay  on  Building,  Lord  Bacon  de- 
clared that  "Houses  are  built  to  live  in,  and  not  to 
look  on."  This  view  appears  to  have  been  endorsed, 
generally,  by  the  Americans  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. Their  houses  were  of  simple,  rectangular 
lines.    Their  doorways  were  mere  openings,  arranged 

[  i3  1 ) 


DOORWAYS 


for  convenience,  and  without  embellishment.  They 
were  openings  affording  passage  through  outside  or* 
inside  walls.  This  was  not  because  all  were  poor, 
and  could  afford  no  decoration.  Many  were  quite 
well-to-do.  It  was  the  custom  of  the  place  and  time. 
Simplicity  was  the  fashion  in  garb  and  in  house. 
This  prevailed  for  nearly  a  hundred  years,  although 
there  was  a  gradual  lessening  of  its  force,  more  par- 
ticularly in  the  matter  of  apparel.  But,  in  the  early 
years  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  Baconian  idea 
was  somewhat  disputed.  A  certain  attention  was 
paid  to  the  house  from  the  standpoint  of  those  who 
might  "look  on"  it.  The  decoration  of  house-fronts 
by  means  of  an  ornamental  doorway  became  steadily 
a  common  practice.  The  simple  rectangle  of  the 
building  itself  persisted  and  the  decorative  doorway 
really  served  to  enhance  the  charming  simplicity 
of  the  structure.  A  little  later,  this  extended  to 
a  simple  but  effective  decoration  above  the  window- 
openings,  and,  still  later,  to  somewhat  elaborate 
and  ornate  cornices.  An  occasional  oddity  appeared, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  House  of  Seven  Gables,  but  for 
nearly  two  hundred  years  the  New  England  fashion 
in  houses  was  the  simple  type  of  rectangular  build- 
ing  with    doorway,    window-opening,    and    cornice 

[Hi 


DOORWAYS 


decoration,  sometimes  singly  and  sometimes  in  com- 
bination. The  city  "mansions'*  of  the  later  Geor- 
gian period  differed  from  their  predecessors  only 
in  size  and  elaborateness  of  portal  and  other  decora- 
tion. 

So  many  old  houses  have  disappeared  leaving 
behind  them  no  plans,  no  working  drawings,  and 
no  pictures,  that  it  is  difficult  if  not  impossible  to 
fix  with  any  exactness  the  beginning  of  what  may 
be  called  the  "porch  period."  There  are  many  old 
houses  with  a  porch  projecting  from  above  the  door- 
way. Many  of  these  are  a  part  of  the  original  struc- 
ture; probably  most  of  them  are.  But  many  are 
of  a  date  long  after  that  of  the  building  of  the  house. 
The  two  sections  of  New  England  in  which  may  be 
found  the  greatest  number  of  old  houses  and  old 
doorways  are,  broadly,  eastern  Massachusetts  and 
western  Connecticut.  These  were  the  fields  of  the 
largest  of  the  early  settlements.  I  have  made  no 
count  of  the  individual  cases,  but  my  impression, 
amounting  almost  to  a  conviction,  is  that  the  porch 
is  common  in  Connecticut  and  unusual  in  Massa- 
chusetts. This  is  in  reference  to  old  and  not  to  mod- 
ern houses.  At  some  undetermined  time,  the  Mas- 
sachusetts area  adopted  the  recessed  doorway,  some- 

[15] 


DOORWAYS 


what  unusual  in  the  Connecticut  area,  and  serving 
the  purpose  of  the  porch,  namely,  shelter  for  one 
who  might  have  to  wait  for  entrance.  Before  the 
use  of  these  devices,  the  user  of  the  doorway,  on  a 
rainy  day,  was  obliged  to  stand  in  the  dripping  from 
the  roof,  not  in  early  days  provided  with  metal 
gutters  nor,  in  many  cases,  even  with  a  wooden 
trough.  The  porch  and  the  recessed  door  also  af- 
forded their  measure  of  protection  from  the  rays 
of  a  hot  summer  sun.  The  physical  reason  for  their 
construction  is  obvious,  but  we  may  assume  that 
they  were  also  regarded  as  ornamental. 

In  not  infrequent  cases,  a  porch  appears  hiding, 
largely,  an  elaborate  doorway.  In  most  instances 
of  that  kind,  we  may  infer  that  the  sheltering  porch 
is  an  addition  of  somewhat  later  date  than  the  erec- 
tion of  the  house,  or  of  its  adornment  by  an  orna- 
mental entrance.  Most,  though  by  no  means  all, 
of  these  porches  are  narrow,  barely  more  than  the 
width  of  the  door  itself.  Frequently,  where  the 
door  has  side-lights,  the  porch  includes  them.  These 
little  projections  afford  an  interest  even  aside  from 
the  doorways.  All  may  seem  quite  alike  to  the  care- 
less observer,  but  their  variations  are  many,  almost 
endless.     Many  village  houses  built  in  the  last  half 

[16] 


DOORWAYS 


of  the  nineteenth  century  show  a  small  canopy  pro- 
jecting above  the  entrance  and  supported  by  brackets 
instead  of  columns,  but  this  device  is  not  often  found 
on  the  older  houses.  While  other  shapes  are  not 
unusual,  the  more  common  form  was  pyramidal, 
a  small  gable  with  pilasters  on  the  house  wall  and 
columns  at  its  outer  end.  The  columns  vary  in 
design;  round,  square,  fluted,  with  plain  and  with 
decorated  capitals,  with  and  without  pedestals. 
In  both  the  gable  and  the  other  designs,  there  is 
wide  variety.  The  flat  entablature  runs  all  the  way 
from  the  severely  plain  to  the  elaborate,  with  dentils 
and  carved  frieze.  In  the  gable,  or  pyramidal,  type 
the  inner  line  or  ceiling  may  follow  the  slope  of  the 
outer  line,  or  it  may  be  arched.  Not  infrequently, 
it  is  flat,  the  face  of  the  pediment  showing  the  con- 
ventional "tympanum."  They  frequently  show 
some  simple  decoration,  dentils  or  a  device  of  the 
Grecian  Doric  order,  or  both.  From  such  informa- 
tion as  I  have  been  able  to  gather  from  professional 
sources,  it  would  appear  that  while  porches  were 
used  to  some  extent  prior  to  that  time,  the  device 
did  not  come  into  any  general  use  until  the  early 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  veranda, 
frequently  miscalled  the  "piazza,"  is  of  a  later  date. 

[i7l 


DOORWAYS 


It  is  now  regarded  as  an  almost  indispensable  feature 
of  a  house  in  the  country,  whether  large  or  small, 
but  our  forefathers  got  along  without  them  for  some- 
thing like  two  hundred  years. 

The  lights  around  the  doors  are  another  interest- 
ing study.  The  name  given  to  the  light  above  the 
door,  "fan-light,"  because  of  its  shape,  like  a  lady's 
fan,  would  seem  to  indicate  that  as  one  of  the  earliest 
patterns  used.  In  many  of  the  older  houses  of  one 
story,  and  in  not  a  few  of  those  of  two  stories,  the 
door  opened  immediately  into  a  room.  In  many, 
and  in  probably  most,  of  the  two-story  buildings 
it  opened  into  a  little  box  of  a  hall,  six  feet  or  so 
square.  A  part  of  this  was  occupied  by  a  narrow 
and*  steep  stairway  proceeding  by  angular  turns  to 
the  floor  above.  The  early  custom  of  building  a 
house  around  a  middle  chimney,  with  fireplaces  in 
the  rooms  about  it,  prohibited  the  use  of  a  central 
or  spacious  hallway.  The  fan-light  was  evidently 
adopted  as  a  means  of  lighting,  to  some  extent,  the 
little  box  that  served  the  double  purpose  of  an  en- 
trance-hall and  a  place  for  a  stairway.  In  the  more 
modest  structures,  a  row  of  small  panes,  usually 
rectangular,  afforded  the  desired  lighting.  When 
in  the  form  of  a  segment  of  a  circle,  the  fan-light  is 

[18] 


DOORWAYS 


often  an  ornamental  design,  of  simple  but  graceful 
lines,  the  glass  usually  set  in  lead.  Side-lights  were 
much  less  commonly  used  than  fan-lights.  They 
range  from  panes  of  common  glass,  arranged  ver- 
tically, to  ornamental  designs.  Not  infrequently, 
they  appear  in  combination  with  fan-lights.  A 
modern  improvement  in  the  lighting  of  these  little 
hallways  is  found  in  the  use  of  doors  with  glass 
panels  instead  of  wood. 

Salem  is  probably  the  most  widely  known  and 
best  advertised  field  for  hunters  of  Old  New  England 
doorways,  but  Portsmouth  is  quite  inclined  to  re- 
gard itself  as,  at  least,  a  rival  claimant  for  the  honor 
of  presenting  the  most  and  the  best.  These  hold 
their  pre-eminence  mainly  by  reason  of  the  portals 
oi"  houses  built  after  the  Revolution,  although  some 
of  the  "mansion  houses"  of  both  were  built  prior 
to  that  event.  But  there  are  other  centres,  some- 
what less  well  known,  that  are,  in  their  way,  quite 
as  interesting  as  Salem  or  Portsmouth.  There  are 
a  number  of  excellent  examples  in  Providence,  and 
there  are  many  in  the  near  neighborhood  of  that 
city.  Somewhat  to  my  surprise,  Newport  had  little 
to  offer.  In  earlier  days,  there  must  have  been  many 
in  that  city,  notable  as  it  has  been  for  many  years 

[19] 


DOORWAYS 


as  a  centre  of  wealth  and  fashion.  The  modern 
multi-millionaires  who  have  built  their  costly  palaces 
along  the  shore  did  not  make  the  place.  In  the 
years  immediately  preceding  the  Revolution,  New- 
port was  a  busy  and  highly  prosperous  commercial 
centre,  with  rich  merchants  who  built  for  them- 
selves houses  that  were  more  or  less  palatial  in  their 
day  and  time.  Most  of  those  buildings  are  now 
gone,  and  most  of  those  that  still  remain  show  little 
sign  of  their  earlier  grandeur.  But  some  of  the 
towns  in  the  vicinity  of  Newport  are  fruitful  fields 
for  doorway-hunters.  Many  excellent  designs  may 
be  seen  in  Warren,  Bristol,  Wickford,  and  a  few 
other  places.  Most  of  them,  however,  are  of  the 
simpler  type,  that  is,  pilasters  with  entablatures  or 
pediments  rather  than  the  built-out  porches  with 
both  pilasters  and  columns  such  as  appear  on  many 
of  the  later  Georgian  mansions. 

Most  of  the  cities  of  New  England  occupy  the 
ground  on  which  stood  the  villages  of  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries.  The  old  village 
site  is,  in  most  of  them,  covered  by  modern  struc- 
tures of  brick  and  stone  and  steel.  Here  and  there 
stand  a  few  old  houses  that,  when  they  were  built, 
were  on  the  outskirts  of  the  village.     But,   aside 

[20] 


DOORWAYS 


from  such  well-known  fields  as  Salem  and  Ports- 
mouth, the  larger  cities  have  little  to  show  in  the 
way  of  old-time  doorways.  The  best  centres,  in 
my  experience,  are  the  towns  and  villages  of  early 
settlement.  But  even  such  places  present  the  charm 
of  uncertainty.  There  are  old  towns  with  old-time 
houses  but  with  few  or  no  interesting  doorways. 
From  various  excursions,  my  conclusion  is  that  the 
Connecticut  valley  from  the  Sound  to  the  Vermont 
line  is,  on  the  whole,  the  most  fruitful  area.  Inas- 
much, however,  as  that  field  covers  approximately 
four  thousand  square  miles,  the  difficulty  of  cover- 
ing it  exhaustively  is  obvious.  The  northeastern 
quarter  of  Massachusetts,  with  excursions  across 
the  border  into  southern  New  Hampshire,  is  another 
good  hunting-ground.  So,  also,  is  little  Rhode  Is- 
land, which  Doctor  Holmes  declared  to  be  "a  small 
but  delightful  State  in  the  neighborhood  of  Paw- 
tucket." 

But  the  pleasure  of  hunting  for  old  doorways 
in  New  England  lies  almost  as  much  in  the  search 
as  in  the  discovery. 


[21] 

52140 


PLATES 


Kittery,  Maine 


Portland,  Maine 


Fryeburg,  Maine 


Scarboro,  Maine 


Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire 


Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire 


Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire 


Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire 


Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire 


PPPBM 


wmmmmmmm. 


Portsmouth,  \tw  Hampshire 


&b&**;-\ 


Bedford,  Massachusetts 


Newbury,  Massachusetts 


• «-  mm  M - I 


Newburyport,  Massachusetts 


Newburyport,  Massachusetts 


Williamstown,  Massachusetts 


Arlington,  Massachusetts 


Lexington,  Massachusetts 


Shrewsbury,  Massachusetts 


East  Windsor  Hill,  Connecticut 


East  Windsor  Hill,  Connecticut 


New  Canaan,  Connecticut 


Farmington,  Connecticut 


Fartnington,  Connecticut 


Farmington,  Connecticut 


Hatfield,  Massachusetts 


Litchfield,  Connecticut 


Litchfield,  Connecticut 


Middlebury,  Connecticut 


East  Windsor  Hill,  Connecticut 


Wethersfield,  Connecticut 


r 


«* 


1  i    • 

•    *  »»* 


Middletown,  Connecticut 


Guilford,  Connecticut 


Guilford,  Connecticut 


Newport,  Rhode  Island 


Rocky  Hill,  Connecticut 


Southington,  Connecticut 


Southbury,  Connecticut 


"7 


Southbury,  Connecticut 


/ 


New  Haven,  Connecticut 


New  Haven,  Connecticut 


Winsted,  Connecticut 


4 


Deerfield,  Massachusetts 


Dferfield,  Massachusetts 


Deerfield,  Massachusetts 


Deerfield,  Massachusetts 


Billerica,  Massachusetts 


Hadley,  Massachusetts 


Hadley,  Massachusetts 


By  field,  Massachusetts 


Salem,  Massachusetts 


Salem,  Massachusetts 


Salem,  Massachusetts 


I 


Salem,  Massachusetts 


-__J 

MM 

.frv.»l 


*L      *     *"  *  *<«*^hf ' 


Deerfield,  Massachusetts 


Deerfield,  Massachusetts 


Deerfield,  Massachusetts 


Deerfield,  Massachusetts 


Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire 


North  Hartland,  Vermont 


Bristol,  Rhode  Island 


Warren,  Rhode  Island 


I — 


Warren,  Rhode  Island 


Warren,  Rhode  Island 


Warren,  Rhode  Island 


■■^■■■^MH 


Wickford,  Rhode  Island 


Madison,  Connecticut 


Nezvburyport,  Massachusetts 


Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire 


\ 


PFW  % 


\m.*'*' 


*^ <, 


Bennington,  Vermont 


Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire 


Lexington,  Massachusetts 


Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire 


Bedford,  Massachusetts 


Wethers  field,  Connecticut 


West-port,  Massachusetts 


Salem,  Massachusetts 


Billerica,  Massachusetts 


Andover,  Massachusetts 


Chelmsford,  Massachusetts 


27T7      * 


JUN  2      193fl 


k  is  DUE  on  tljtp  last  date  stamped  below 


DEC  2 


torn 


JUN^5195h 

0EC2  bRtCO        jy 
APR12  1957 


te 


"3UN 1 5 19* 

WAR  2  6  1947 
JUL  30** 

JAN  $     1950 
^JA^j1951, 


JAN  6 


195V* 


0EC16R 


Form  L-9-35?n-8,'28 


Oec  26  '^ 

KEC'D  LD-URfi 
BHJRL    NOV  9     fg67 

N0"  .3 1967 


BC'o 
MAY    5/973 


10 


AUPk 


WSCHAP^c  "of 

MR 25  Ml 


3  1158  00588  8036 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA      000126123    9 


